Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Reward Scheme

Highlights

To promote primary healthcare by optimising the use of resources, the Government will provide rewards to eligible Hong Kong elderly persons aged 65 or above to encourage their use of Health Care Vouchers (“Vouchers”) for receiving designated primary healthcare (“PHC”) services such as health assessment, chronic disease screening and management provided by private healthcare service providers.

As long as an elderly person’s principal reason for visit to a healthcare service provider is to receive designated PHC services, the amount of Vouchers used by the elderly person on that occasion can be accumulated for earning reward, which can be used for settling fees for such designated PHC services in future.

Once an elderly person has accumulated Voucher spending of $1,000 or above on designated PHC services within the same year, the eHealth System (Subsidies) will automatically allot $500 reward to his/her Voucher account.

The three-year Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Reward Scheme (“Pilot Reward Scheme”) will run up to 31 December 2026. An elderly person can be allotted the reward once each year at most; that is, an elderly person can obtain $1,500 reward at most over the term of the Pilot Reward Scheme.

What are Designated Primary Healthcare Services?

Designated PHC services under the Pilot Reward Scheme include:

Reward Mechanism

• As a special arrangement, the period for accumulating Voucher spending for the first-year reward (i.e. reward for year 2024) will begin on 13 November 2023 and end on 31 December 2024. The corresponding accumulation period for the following two years will begin on 1 January and end on 31 December of the year.
• Only the Voucher amount used within the same year will count towards the accumulated amount. Accumulated Voucher spending will be reset to zero at the start of each year (normally 1 January), and any previously accumulated amount will lapse on that day.
• The reward will be immediately allotted once the accumulated Voucher spending recorded in the eHealth System (Subsidies) reaches $1,000. An SMS message will be sent to the Hong Kong mobile phone number provided by the elderly person as notification, which will also show the expiry date of the reward.
• The reward will expire by the end of the following year. Unused reward cannot be accumulated and will lapse after the expiry date.
• When an elderly person uses Vouchers to pay for designated PHC services, the eHealth System (Subsidies) will automatically deduct the relevant fee from the reward (if available) first, and then deduct the remaining fee from the balance in his/her Voucher account (if necessary).
• According to the “user accumulates” principle, if an elderly person uses his/her spouse’s Vouchers to pay for designated PHC services, the amount spent will only be recorded as his/her own accumulated Voucher spending instead of his/her spouse’s.
• After using the reward to pay for designated PHC services, an elderly person will receive an SMS message showing the balance of the reward and the expiry date.
• Shared use of reward between spouses is not allowed.

Reminder

• The reward for each year comes with an expiry date, after which it will lapse. Elderly persons should take note and make thorough plan on how to make the best use of the reward for designated PHC services before it expires.
• The Department of Health (“DH”) and healthcare service providers will never, in relation to the use of Vouchers (including reward), ask elderly persons to provide information about their bank accounts (including passwords) via phone calls or SMS messages, or to click on a web link Elderly persons should stay vigilant against scams.
• The DH will strictly deal with all suspected cases of non-compliance in accordance with the established monitoring mechanism, and take appropriate measures / actions such as referring cases to the law enforcement agencies and / or the relevant professional regulatory boards / councils for follow-up as appropriate.